Home Advantage
Chapter one
Kenji
Every part of me wanted to be within the softest place on earth—the space between my Tiger's thighs.
The wet silk of her wrapped around my cock.
Her breath at my ear. Her nails sliding down my back.
Her thighs trembling. Her back arching. My name breaking apart in her mouth. Her soul threading with mine.
That was the only war I wanted to fight.
The slow conquest of her body.
The surrender of mine.
I wanted her riding me slow in the dark until neither of us could remember our own names.
Since she had walked into my life, I had stopped craving blood. I craved her. Quiet mornings. Slow hours. A life where my hands learned her body instead of how many ways to end a man's.
Love instead of war.
I had spent my whole life learning how to take.
She had taught me how to receive.
I was supposed to be with her tonight. Buried in her. Counting her moans like a man counts his blessings. Drowning in her and truly living.
Then Kiko called the Fox.
And the soft night I had earned turned to ash before I ever touched her.
And now I stood over a map deciding how many men would not see morning.
“All hope is not lost.” Reo stood across from me at the long table. “We at least have home advantage, and that matters.”
A freshly painted map of the island rested between us. Needing to do one as quickly as possible, the artist had used a brush too wide for the coastline and the green had bled into the blue in places.
Reo tapped the center of the island. "Most of the open ground is gone."
I leaned in.
Across the painted forests and roads, small wooden blocks had been placed in clusters— trucks parked at angles, towering stacks of metal sheets, brick walls hauled up within the hour and stacked three stories high.
Reo pointed at them. “Our men have spent this hour turning every clearing, every flat field, and every wide road into a wall of obstacles.”
I traced one of the clusters with my finger. "How tall?"
"Some metal stacks are at three stories. Bricks at two. The trucks are parked nose to tail across the runways and the wider roads. All have lights on them so the height and width can be seen from the sky by Akiro’s pilots.
" Reo gestured down the length of the map.
"Nothing with wings is landing in the middle of this island tonight. "
“Perfect.” I followed his hand across the map.
The East Coast was blocked. The West Coast too. The interior fields where Akiro's pilots would expect open ground were also blocked.
“Only two stretches of the island had been left clean for Akiro’s pilots.” He picked up a red plane from the side and placed it on one part of the map and then the other. “The North landing zone and the South landing zone.”
"We decide where their planes go.”
"Akiro's pilots will circle the island once, maybe twice, and realize they have two choices. North or South. Anywhere else and they crash into a brick tower or a stack of steel which will destroy their planes for us."
I studied the two cleared zones.
Both sat far enough from the mansion to give Akiro's men the illusion that they had picked a smart drop point. Both had natural cover at the tree line—heavy forest, ridges, and places a man could believe he could regroup.
Both were lies.
I tilted my head. "And the Scales?"
Reo pointed at the North zone first. Tiny black marks dotted the trees around the cleared field. “We have dozens of them here, ringed in tight.”
Next, he moved his finger to the South zone. “The southern tree line is packed with armed Scales already in position.”
Akiro's men would step off those planes thinking they had found the only safe ground on the island. They would form up, move toward the tree line, and the moment the first boot crossed the grass, the Scales would open up from every angle.
I nodded. “A kill box.”
“Two of them.”
Two kill boxes. Hundreds of men who would die on grass they thought was safe. I had ordered worse. Tonight, it still sat heavy in my chest and I prayed that most of the dead would be from the other side.
"What if the first landing pilots warn the others?”
“Radio jamming is set." Reo's hand rested flat on the map. "By the time Akiro understands what we have done, he will have lost more men in the first ten minutes than he expected to lose in the first hour."
Suddenly, my Tiger entered my mind and I gripped the table’s edge.
Tora. . .not now.
Her face pushed into my thoughts uninvited. I gritted my teeth and shoved it down. There was no space for her in this war room tonight.
I had to stay centered.
I let my eyes move slowly across the map—the brick towers, metal stacks, and funneled landing zones. “This is good, but good won’t be enough to end this tonight.”
“What are you thinking?”
"If Akiro arrives with his head clear and the Fox safely at the hotel, even if we kill Akiro and all his men. . .the war continues.” I stood straight. “My father will just find a new champion to do his bidding."
"We need to get your father here, but how?"
"We have to kill his certainty for safety."
Reo went still.
I looked back at the phone. “We may have to do things that we don’t want to.”
Reo frowned, knowing where I was going. “I’m not sure that is the sacrifice we need. It is a massive one.”
“Tonight will be all about sacrifices if we plan to win.”
“Still, you’re talking about giving away Asia to an egotistical beast. What’s the point of winning Japan if the Lion is the dictator?”
“I won’t give him Asia, but. . .I will give him the illusion of it.”
“Kenji—”
“He can help us get inside my father’s head.
” I tapped the painted mansion at the center of the map.
"A broken mind collapses faster than a broken army.
The greatest commanders in history did not win because they had the most men.
They won because by the time the enemy arrived, half the battle had already happened inside their trembling minds. "
Reo leaned forward against the table.
"The Mongols took entire cities without ever drawing a sword.
The cities surrendered because terror traveled faster than horses.
" I let my finger trace the painted coastline.
"The samurai wore oni-like masks not because the masks killed men but because the masks made the enemy believe they were fighting something larger than human.
And even. . .the Vikings cultivated a reputation so brutal and so unpredictable that men shook before the longships even touched shore. "
"Fear arrived before the army did." Reo's eyes moved over the map. "The fight was half over before it started."
"A mask is never just a mask."
Reo looked up at me.
"A banner is never just cloth. A nickname is never just a title. They become weapons aimed directly at human fear."
"So you don’t just want the Fox to come to the island, you want him already afraid when he arrives?"
"I want him fucking shaking before his plane leaves the ground."
The line of his jaw twitched. "The most dangerous warrior is not the strongest. It is the one who climbs into the enemy's head and makes him imagine defeat before the battle even begins."
I nodded. "Once fear controls the mind, violence merely finishes the job."
Reo leaned his head to the side. “How do we make the Fox get out of his hospital bed?”
“He’s terrified of bombs. Explosions all around that bed.”
That expression of disappointment covered Reo’s face. “Kenji. . .”
“I know. The Lion is an egotistical psychopath with nuclear weapons.”
“To use him is to put a dangerous fate to Japan. You know what Kazimir does after he’s helped a war end. He stays. He stayed in Crimea. He stayed in Syria. He stayed in Mali. The Lion never leaves the meat once he has tasted it.”
“I’ll deal with that later. Tonight, we need that feeling of danger. We need hysteria saturating every bit of air in Tokyo. That is what will get the Fox out of the bed and at Akiro’s side.”
Reo rubbed the temples on his forehead.
“Am I wrong?”
"Unfortunately, no.” Reo lowered his hand. “Explosions to Hotel Gajoen will make the Fox pull the tubes out of his arms and rush to the only person he thinks will surely keep him protected."
I met his eyes. "And we have people whisper all around Tokyo that there are assassination teams crawling all over the city searching for the Fox."
“He’ll be terrified.” Reo's gaze dropped back to the map.
For a long moment he said nothing. His hand hovered above the painted island, fingers slightly spread, as if he were already moving pieces I had not yet placed.
Reo looked back up at me. “And if he dies in the explosion?”
"If the Fox is in his bed when Hotel Gajoen crumbles, then fine.
The rubble can have him. I'd prefer to cut him with my brother, but I'll take ash.
" I tapped the edge of the table. "If he survives.
. .he runs. He's a coward in his marrow, Reo.
Hotel Gajoen blowing under his feet will shatter him. Make him act erratically."
Reo narrowed his eyes. "He'll run to Akiro."
"He'll run straight to my brother because Akiro is the only place his shattered head will feel safe. He won't trust his bodyguards. Or the safehouses. He'll want family. He'll want blood." I tapped the island map. "And blood is coming here."
Reo took a slow breath.
"Both of them on my mother's island. Now that’s the true home advantage.” I picked up my phone and dialed the Lion.
I'd probably burn for the deal I would make with the Lion.
Tokyo may burn too.
But more importantly, my father would feel the heat of it all.